Jobs still outnumber applicants

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

KANE'OHE — It had been hard enough trying to hire workers in one of the tightest job markets in the country — and it only got harder when Alicia Fernando found herself sitting in the dark last week at Windward Community College's job fair.

A temporary power outage only added to the frustration of recruiters collecting applications at the Windward Community College job fair. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I don't think people even know we're here," said Fernando, human resources coordinator for Maui Divers. "It's already so hard finding workers and it's just getting harder and harder."

Each job fair offers insight into Hawai'i's economy, and Windward's followed the recent trend of more openings than applicants for primarily entry-level jobs.

The temporary power outage only added to the frustration of recruiters competing for applications from about 500 job seekers.

Hawai'i's unemployment rate has been running at or below 3 percent for the past three months and below 3.5 percent since April 2004.

With an unemployment rate over 2 percentage points below the national average, Hawai'i frequently has led the country in low unemployment.

So recruiters such as Yvette Gibson of Enterprise Rent-A-Car have been attending every O'ahu job fair. She already plans to set up a table at upcoming job fairs at Kapi'olani Community College, Leeward Community College and the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

"We're facing a lot of challenges," Gibson said. "We're on an island and this is a captive market. We're looking for goal-oriented individuals, but we have 30-odd employers all fighting for the same candidates."

Many of the job candidates were greeted by eager recruiters anxious to take their resumes and job applications.

"There seem to be lots of openings," said Kimberly Brennan, a 19-year-old, first-year Windward student from Kane'ohe.

Brennan just left a job at Subway sandwiches to take another at Taco Bell. But she's already looking for another job with steadier hours and better pay.

Brennan fits the profile of many of Hawai'i's job candidates, recruiters say — young, entry-level workers who can move at ease between jobs because of the high demand for workers.

"With all of these openings that people have, they literally jump from one entry-level job to another entry-level job," said Chad Cohen, recruitment and training coordinator for Foodland.

Cohen came to the job fair armed with a list of about 25 positions in almost every Foodland department.

But Cohen left with only a handful of applications and resumes.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8085.